Lair o’ the Bear

Clicking the pics gives you a better view of my walk along Bear Creek.

Bear Creek is running pretty high and muddy right now, probably from mountain rains.

No more indecisiveness! I need to make a firm decision.... Or do I?

I need to put down my cup of coffee, get out of my easy chair, and do something.... Anything! There are many things to do around here; it's just that I don't do them. And why should I? I'm not a tourist; I don't need to do things tourists do; after all, I live here, I can do those things anytime... But for some reason, I don't; it's not that I wouldn't like to; I just never get around to it.

But I figure the least I could do is go for a walk; there are lots of great places to walk around here, so I picked one of the places that's about 10 miles away called The Lair o' the Bear, which is in the hill country, very near the famous Red Rocks Amphitheater where you would be hard-pressed to find a famous musician that hasn't played Red Rocks in the last 75 years . So hopefully there wouldn't be any severe altitude changes, for me to walk up and down. In fact, children can walk on these well-prepared paths.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I figure I've saved you eight or nine thousand words of boring blog post by showing these pictures instead of writing anything..... You're welcome!

If you're interested in reading about Lair O' the Bear Park you can get some information here https://old.10adventures.com/hikes/denver/lair-o-the-bear-park/

                                                        Theboondork

I'm about halfway up the hill. If you look carefully you can see where I parked down below. It was an exceptionally beautiful, clear day, even by Colorado standards, which always makes the mountains look closer than they really are.

I was feeling pretty good until 10-year-old kids started running by me on the steepest part of the trail. I hope the little beggars save enough energy to help drag my carcass back to the parking lot after I keel over.

Bear Creek is famous for its flooding, and in fact it's propensity for flooding has wiped out everything downstream more than once.

Children fording one of the smaller streams that flow into Bear Creek as Bear Creek meanders its way to the South Platte River, where it will converge with the North Platte in Nebraska, and then it will just be known as the Platte River. Where it will continue east until it merges with the Missouri River on the Nebraska, Iowa border.

There are some houses on the outskirts of Bear Creek park, this is one I can see from the trail part way up into the hills.

 kids stopping for lunch along Bear Creek. Kids need to be doing more of this, but I fear they're doing it less and less.

Bear Creek tumbles and roars through the area. Sometimes peacefully, other times not so much. In 1938 flood waters swept through Bear Creek and other nearby creeks killing six people. In 1969 Bear Creek came to life again after heavy rains but only one person was killed by that flood. 1973 heavy rains along with the snow melt in early May flooded Bear Creek and other creeks in the area killing two people.

When you live around mountains as steep as the Rockies, flash flooding due to heavy rains or rapid snow-melt, to one degree or another is just a way of life.

The Castle. The Castle is on private land so I didn't get any closer than this. It's been several things in the past, including wiped out by floods. And I'm guessing now it may be a bed-and-breakfast and possibly a place you can rent to hold a wedding ceremony, after all it is a beautiful area.

Bear Creek is pretty wide at this point but still somewhat shallow.